This year the 2016 Lone Pine Film Festival celebrates directors. I thought as the event begins today, it would be fun to think back to the many talented directors I have encountered working with movies in the area these last nine years.

I have always loved film. Back in college I was a very active participant in the Dartmouth Film Society. So it was no surprise to me, once I retired I became involved in the film industry where I lived. At first I was a volunteer, until the Inyo Film Commission broke away from Mono County. So my first encounters with directors were as a curious “lookie-lou.”

I visited the set of “Tremors” several times, first out on Whitney Portal Road (where they were filming “cold for hot”) and then in the area near Dolomite where they built the aqueduct set. I didn’t get to talk to Ron Underwood at the time but watched him work. That was when I first really understood the role of the director. I also watched them shoot Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward discovering the dead worm that had chased them. They shot the scene in at least fifteen ways, over and over again. The “glamour” of being a movie star I learned includes many trials: hurry up and wait; we needed it yesterday; let’s do it one more time.

It was when Ron and others from the production did a panel I moderated at the film festival that I fully understood the challenges. The panel was after his big film “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” had bombed, and as unpleasant as it was, I asked him “What happened?” His explanation was enlightening. He said the job of the director is to have a vision for a film, and then get cast and crew to have the same shared vision. He had not been able to do that. Star Eddie Murphy and others were each making their own movie and thus “Adventures” never really came together. He was remarkably candid, and also took full responsibility for the film's failure. He is a man of strong ethical character.

Again, I was on the set of the movie “Maverick,” not working but watching. First of all it was a very open set so I could frequently watch Richard Donner direct and Mel Gibson act. For instance, that day an actor was falling between animatronic snakes. He was right on cue but the reptiles were never coordinated or “hitting” their marks. Mel had to fall flat on his face in the earth at least fifteen times and went through several shirt changes.

But it was my luck to also be standing between the two men at breaks in the action listening to Donner instructing Gibson on many of the finer points in directing. I realized how generous professionals can be with their knowledge and time with people who want to learn new skills. Gibson’s first directorial assignment was ”The Man Without a Face,” which was a small film where he played a fire-scarred man. His second outing was “Braveheart,” which won Best Picture and got him an Oscar for directing. It would seem Richard Donner is a pretty good teacher.

The first film I worked on as film commissioner was a low budget short film that told the story ofa white friend who went with his Japanese pals to Manzanar, basically as a protest. The film is “Stand Up For Justice” by writer/director John Esaki. The film was being produced through a grant and John Esaki was directing. For me it was learning by watching. They had some small yet effective sets, simple costumes but professional actors and crew. The film was to be placed in every California high school library. I

It was several years later when director John Esaki brought it to screen at Manzanar that I saw it. John was there and we chatted briefly about the challenges of making it. I was very impressed with the quality of the film, taking a small budget and parleying it into a fully realized film. I began to sense the power and skill a director must have to take limited resources and make it look fully believable while telling the story visually.

Dominic Cianciolo, Director of “Bounty” a western short film, was easy to work with out in the Alabama Hills, dealing with changing light and shadow and matching the clouds, or absence of them, in the sky. Somehow I falsely thought that westerns were easier than other genres, but as I watched them work, location shooting presents unique challenges.

Then I began to work with larger pictures and a different set of problems. First the director and his immediate team were directing hundreds of people, over months of shooting. When a schedule change intercedes, filming can easily slip into chaos. I had heard a lot about director Michael Bay: juvenile, emotive, castigating his crew or actors in front of others. One time he was quoted as saying: “So what if I made movies for teenage boys, they make a billion dollars.” In the case of “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen,” star Shia LeBeouf injured himself and the section to be filmed in the Alabama Hills was suddenly moved up a month. Although scouting had been done and locations chosen, the team rushed to be ready. Then the crew, I and, two BLM employees waited and waited for him.

Finally Bay roared into camp right on the southern end of Movie Road, screeched to a halt and ordered a tuna fish sandwich. Location personnel said, “Michael, let us show you where you’’ll be filming. “ He answered, “Let me show you where I want to film” and roared off, never having been there before but familiar with the areas from scouting photos I hoped. We all jumped into cars and sped after him. When the dust settled, he had changed several of the sites, but having BLM people there, permitting was ok’d. Since everything was set up for other sites, the crew was confused and soon Bay was yelling at them for the confusion he had actually instituted.

Later he pushed aside the Director of Photography (DP) and took control of the camera and the shot. I was nearby and watched him work. Perhaps he thought I had the power to shut him down, but he remained cordial to me and after a brief explanation, actually pinned on a “Don’t Crush the Brush” button. Later complications ensued when the two tigers on set were to be set free, but be on “electronic leashes.” The production needed a local big game hunter. That story and more next time.

Ida Lupino as Marie and Humphrey Bogart as Roy "Mad Dog" Earle after their roles in "High Sierra" became big stars.

By now, after seventy-five years, we know there was as much drama behind the camera as in front as High Sierra filmed in many locations including Lone Pine. But all the whining on Mt. Whitney, risking of lives on the cliffs and winding road below, the gambling with careers, and the tricks to get coveted parts all contributed to give us one of the lasting hallmarks of noir filmmaking. Much of it began in the glaring sun of a Lone Pine July day in a summer not too different from 2016’s. torrid months.

Humphrey Bogart stands in his iconic pose as Roy Earle on the cliffs in front of Mt. Whitney.

On July 5, 1940, nearly at the beginning of the film shoot, the Warners Brothers company started to shoot the dramatic climax of High Sierra. It was the suspenseful yet picturesque flight of Roy “Mad Dog” Earl to evade the police in the gray Plymouth coupe on display in the Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine. He raced up the twisting old Portal Road to the heights of Mt. Whitney and the biggest and final fall of his life. (Remember shooting scenes out of chronological order is nothing unsual in Hollywood.)

The author of the book the film is based on, W.R. Burnett, had already written other successful novels-to-film and original scripts for the movies. They include Little Caesar, Iron Man, Beast of the City (script), Scarface (script), Dark Hazard, The Whole Town Is Talking (script based on a story), and Dark Command, to name several. He would go on to write This Gun For Hire and The Asphalt Jungle, so he was and remained a proven commodity. Jack Warner read the book and immediately bought it.

Ida Lupino as Marie at Whitney Portal where her boyfriend Earle would meet his death. At the time she was recovering from measles.

Director Raoul Walsh is quoted by his bioographer as saying they paid $12,500 but others state it was almost double that. They had a hot property on their hands, and although they changed the name several times (i.e. I Died a Thousand Times and The Jagged Edge) it returned to High Sierra. The remake with Jack Palance and Shelley Winters used the Edge production title when they filmed at the Cuffe ranch and the film was eventually released with the I Died…. Title.)

Casting the Roy Earle part presented some problem. His career on his way up, Humphrey Bogart fell in love with the part but Paul Muni was being considered. At the time he was the biggest star at the studio and he agreed to do it if Warners in return would allow him to create a biographical film about composer Beethoven. At first they agreed and then backed out of the agreement which angered Muni. He began to reject every version of the script. Soon he would be leaving the studio for good.

A Spanish mini poster captures the controversy of guns and sex that marked "High Sierra."

The next actor was George Raft who was not well liked but made a good salary and his films brought in money. Warner wanted Raft to work harder. Raft, on the other hand, not known for his wise decisions on which roles he would take, refused. His reasoning was his fans wouldn’t want to see him die. At the same time Bogart got wind of Muni leaving and wrote to Hal Wallis who had told him to let him know when he saw a role that interested him. He got no answer and wired him again as it looked like the part was up for grabs.

“Dear Hal....You told me once to let you know when I found a part I wanted. As a few weeks ago I left a note for you concerning High Sierra. I never received an answer so I’m bringing it up again as I understand there is some doubt about Muni doing it.” Wallis did not respond again right away.

Stuntman Buster Wiles played both the sniper and the doomed Earle leading him to remarked he actually shot himself.

Then there was getting a final script ready for the shoot. Another fan of the novel and the character was writer/ director John Huston who also worked at Warners. Before he told Wallis he was interested in writing the script, it was assigned to Warren Duff who found the story “somewhat preposterous.” His approach would likely get a reponse from the Breen censorship office. Huston would be the man it began to seem who could capture the nuanced subtlety of Burnett’s storytelling.

Huston sent a memo that identified how the studio was mishandling the project. He wrote, in part according to Walsh biographer Marilyn Ann Moss, “Take the spirit out of Burnett, the strange sense of inevitability that comes without deepening understanding of his characters and the forces that motivate them, and only the conventional husk of a story remains.”

This publicity still of Marie (Ida Lupino) was probably shot at Lake Arrowhead where "High Sierra" also filmed.

Finally Jack Warner assigned Huston to write, and Raft and Ida Lupino who had worked on another picture together to star. Raft finally refused and Warner chose Bogart as a star on the rise. Walsh was brought on late to the project but he still worked to finish casting.

A near final draft of the script was done, but it would have to be “cleansed” to be in keeping with the Production Code that was still in full sway in Hollywood. More about that next time.

The scene at Whitney Portal as police marksman climbs up to shoot the sympathetic gangster.

Even after Bogart succeeded in capturing the role, the studio had some on-going concerns. When Ida Lupino and Bogart were finally cast and were working together, they had a very stiff relationship although things improved during the shoot. Ida stated, “I have a way of kidding with a straight face; so has Bogie. Neither of us recognized the trait in the other. Each of us thought the other was being nasty, and we were both offended.”

William Donati in his biography of Lupino recounts Bogart working with his co-star. In a scene she was required to cry but was finding it difficult. Bogarft broke the stalemate by taking her aside and saying, “Listen doll, if you can’t cry, just remember one thing-I’m going to take this picture away from you.” She laughed just as he wanted. Then he continued, “All right, now you’re relaxed. If you can’t relate it to me or the charcter go back to your childhood. Can you remember when you hasd to say goodbye to somebody, somebody you loved? And you thought you weren’t going to see them again?”

Ida replied she had and then noticed tears in Bogey’s eyes. Soon she was crying as well.

The story of Roy Earle with his dog Pard by his dead body and Marie realizing he was final free.

(Note: In keeping with the seventy-fifth anniversary of “High Sierra,” the Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine has the Plymouth that Bogart drove up to the Whitnery Portals. There is also abn accurate standee of Bogart in costume with whome the adventuresome can have their picture taken. Finally is the large picture with Bogart and the car here in Lone Pine hanging above the display.)

Yvonne DeCarlo’s “…debut performance in this Universal programmer…sets up DeCarlo as little more than an exotic vamp with the ability to dance in gauzy costumes. Distracting the audience in the hopes they won’t realize there’s no plat to be had,” writes Kristen in the on-line column “Journey in Classic Films.” She continues, “’Salome, Where She danced” is the film equivalent of throwing bologna on the ceiling and betting on which piece sticks.”

“Postwar nihilism conquered by the Eternal Feminine, an irresistible quasi-operetta that transforms an old Chinese sage with a Scottish brogue into a spokesman for the medium’s amalgamated possibilities, “ Fernando F. Croce. He also writes, “The leering count (Albert Dekker) with monocle and rapier, the Russian aesthete (Walter Slezak) giving away Rembrandts, Madame Europe (Marjorie Rambeau) and her hoochie-coochie review, ‘all instruments of divine providence’ in a Technicolor hallucination of erudite silliness.” The critics did not like and still don’t like the film “Salome, Where She Danced.” Yet still it made money.

Yvonne DeCarlo plays a newly recruited spy whop falls in love with the person she is spying on. Rod Cameron, the Clark Gable wanna be (Jim Steed) decides to promote her act into “Salome” the legendary dancer with seven veils that takes the American West by storm. It is just after General Lee’s surrender and there is a lot of unhappiness among the soldiers from the South who want to keep on fighting for as one says, “I’ve been fighting since I was 16. I don’t know what else to do.”

These war-damaged soldiers suffering from PTSD explain why the man Salome finally falls in love with is a brigand and stagecoach robber whose name is Cleve Blunt played by David Bruce. Bruce is an expressionless Ashley Wilkes character (“Gone With the Wind’), which makes Cameron a Rhett Butler type. Imitation is the truest form of flattery, they say.

This role was DeCarlo’s first starring role and it made her a star of B pictures, until she ran into Lily Munster of the T.V. show “The Munsters” which sadly is how I see her in the picture as an old woman. Now mind you she is truly beautiful although classic ballet may not be her forte. Producer Walter Wanger did a coast-to-coast search and said she was chosen from 20,000 persons who tried out. DeCarlo’s story is she had pictures in revealing costumes taken and got two childhood friends from Vancouver, Reginald Reid and Kenneth Ross McKenzie, who had became pilots, to arrange their friends to lobby on her behalf.”

The film was a “project racing up the ladder of success before tripping and hitting every rung on the way down,” according to critic Kristen. The director was originally going to be John Ford and producer Walter Wanger’s vision was creating an “ Arabian Nights story in western setting.” Kristen again comments, “It’s safe to say Wanger never read “Arabian Nights” because outside of DeCarlo acting sultry, revealing her bare midriff and wearing harem pants, there’s little of that compendium’s storytelling.

The technical crew should be complemented including cinematographers W. Howard Greene and Hal Mohr who capture her on film as utterly breathtaking and beautiful. Vera West’s costumes, with a mix of styles including Arabian Chinese and western are beautiful and through the magic of movies, Miss DeCarlo looks marvelous even after riding in a rough stagecoach for days and days.

If there is only the typical bow to the seductive women of Orientalism in a few scenes, equal so there is little of the Alabama Hills as well. They were here according to the Inyo Independent, but in the film except for some long shots in the rocks and showing the mountains, most of the Lone Pine footage is back projected. On November 14, 1944 the II reported, “A company of 38 Universal Studio employees were in Lone Pine last weekend, shooting scenes on a technicolor (sic) film reportedly entitled ‘Salome, Where She Danced.’” The writer continued, “The company arrived on Friday and returned to Hollywood Monday. The group stayed at the Dow Hotel, and were dined by Johnny Morris of the Mt. Whitney Café.

Without belaboring the point, what a movie like this demonstrates is the power of Oriental stereotypes in Hollywood and perhaps even in the West after the Civil War. I found the film fun although it has never been official release in a good print. It can be found on youtube and would make fun to sit down and watch on a hot summer night and just chill.

By the way, Salome is a town between Quartzite and Wickenburg in Arizona. A railroad-stopping place it is about the same size as Lone Pine. Dick Wick Hall, and Arizonian humorist, claims Salome co-founder Charles H. Pratt’s wife “had taken off her shoes in the Sonoran Desert and danced to keep the soles of her feet from burning on the hot sand. Her reward was to have a town named after her. Hall drew stick figures of Salome’s dance, and like many a newspaper proprietor boosting his town, hyped it as the place where Salome danced.”

Errol Flynn rides through the Alabama Hills with Lone Pine Peak in the background.

In the interest of full disclosure, I love “Kim” which is set in Indian but filmed partially in the Alabama Hills. I watched it again a few nights ago. I saw the film in my youth (six years old) when it was released and ever after I have wanted to be Kim, played by Dean Stock- well in this film and have a pal and mentor like Red Beard (Errol Flynn). Finally I sought the Lama (Paul Lukas) as a loving friend and guide through the vicissitudes of growing up. I never found a substitute for him. I am sure watching the film for the first time was when I set my sights on India, which I finally visited at length during my sojourn to Iran in the Peace Corps.

I was thoroughly charmed by watching it again, I guess partially because it is a very entertaining movie and because it brought me back to those wonderful times as a kid when movies were real, and what you saw was physical existence and true. As adults we know better, as we have lost so many things that we knew as authentic and matter of fact when young. Santa Claus is one. Stop and think of how many things you no longer believe whether big or small.

Enough nostalgia, let’s take up the case of “Kim” (1950). Much of the film was shot on location in India, but when it came to the Khyber Pass and the mountain city of Simla, where else would they come than here. The rocks and the mountains just look beautiful in this transfer to DVD. The story is reasonably simple. Kim is a British orphan Kimball O’Hara, but he has lived on the streets and developed the worldly skills of an adult. In fact Dean Stockwell’s performance is strong and at the center of the film.

Bosley Crowther wrote at the time in the “N. Y. Times,” “And, surprisingly enough, the performance which little Dean Stockwell gives as a young beggar and courageous adventurer is delightfully sturdy and sound.” Again recently, critic Kate Woodbury says, “Especially since at age 14, Stockwell already had that borderline look of amused insolence down pat…. Kim has that Buddhist edge. But the kindness masked by insouciance coupled with incredible energy is pure Kim.”

The film company came to the Alabama Hills because they look so much like the Khyber Pass.

Kim becomes involved in “the great” game of espionage and the plot’s use of Russian villains working to break the British hold on the colony of India drives the film. The Holy Man is seeking the River of the Arrow, which represents achieving true enlightenment, and Red Beard is a bit of a womanizer, which Flynn is perfectly ready to play, even though he is now showing his age towards the end of his career.

Dean Stockwell has commented on working with Errol Flynn as quite an education in itself. Woodbury has also written, “Over the course of the book, Kim develops a more complex understanding of morality than he starts out with. This is necessary since Kim is cocky almost to the point of arrogance; he is only reigned in by his mentor, the extremely pacifistic lama.” Stockwell has said, “I did a movie with Errol Flynn when I was 13. I got quite an education.” Many of the stories Stockwell tells of working with Flynn cannot be told in a family paper, but he has also said, “I’m not saying I’d recommend him for the rest of society. It just so happened at that time of my life….he was what he was: a truly profound, non-superficial sex symbol. He was the…. male.” Stockwell was separated from his father and was raised only by his mother.

This was a famous publicity shot but the scene never made it into the movie.

When the film premiered, much debate happened about whether this was a film appropriate for children at all. By today’s standards it remains rather tame. To this point, one anonymous writer states, “But sadly I wasn’t born until the 70’s and whilst I have a love of old cinema I feel that ‘Kim’ whilst probably hold warm memories for those who watched it in 1950 as it doesn’t quite pack the same punch for those coming to it much later in life.” Another on-line unnamed writer sums up, “What this all boils down to is that ‘Kim’ is one of those movies which didn’t really do it for me but I can appreciate why those who watched it as children in 1950 might love it. But it does feature a fantastic performance from a young Dean Stockwell which actually brings some depth to the character of Kim.”

There is some violence but off-camera and some mischief and light hearted play, but no great explosions, dramatic battle scenes, or special effects. It is a film of characters and romance. The images captured when the director of photography and crew are on location in India serve the film well, as does the work in the Alabama Hills. Perhaps part of the problem was that only part of the cast went on location. Stockwell did not, and although one writer said his work all was on the back lot, Stockwell, Flynn and Lucas were all clearly in Lone Pine.

An aging Errol Flynn runs in this scene of a campsite located in what is called Ruiz Hill.

I would wholeheartedly recommend the film to parents for adolescent viewers although as you can see without the intensity of scenes and action we have come to associate with “Iron Man,” or “X Men” your children might wonder about why you have wanted them to view it. Tell them it has a good simple plot that focuses on growing up in a foreign country. It takes up the complexity of morals, and features a subtext of spiritual growth. Not something they would see readily in today’s Cineplex.

This movie is pretty faithful to the novel by Rudyard Kipling on which it is based.

I suppose it comes as no surprise that in “Tarzan’s Desert Mystery” (1943) and “Tarzan’s Savage Fury” (1952), both full of Arab and African characters, all were played by white American actors. If movies are cultural artifacts of their time, these two Tarzan movies, the first in the middle of WW2 and the second embedded in the time of the cold war varied their villains, but the sets were decorated by people playing roles of a stereotypical nature.

Edgar Rice Burrough’s novels of this near-naked white man, a British nobleman dropped into a foreign and somewhat hostile environment, went through many iterations during the some 89 Tarzan movies that have been made since the first in silent days. But the original novels are rife with Orientalist distortions.

Burroughs has Tarzan’s general rule of killing only for food or in self-defense not apply to natives. Tarzan “constantly belittles the blacks, both the Africans and one African American, Jane Porter’s companion and nursemaid Esmeralda.” Actually, Tarzan’s skin color in the original novel is “brown” and even “indigenous.” Burroughs adds, almost as an afterthought: “tanned to a dusky brown.” Associations of Tarzan with Native Americans occur in several of the movies as well. Boy actually recites “Hiawatha” in one. Vernon writes “And lo! There’s Jane now. Tarzan’s attraction to Jane is based primarily on her ‘snowy’ whiteness, as she’s the first white woman he’s ever seen, and is beautiful for her whiteness.”

The early books particularly give a pervasively negative and stereotypical portrayal of native Africans, both Arab and Black. Arabs are “surly looking” and call Christians “dogs.” Blacks are “lithe, ebon warriors, gesticulating and jabbering.” Other groups are stereotyped as well. A Swede has “a yellow moustache, an unwholesome complexion, and filthy nails.” Russians generally are cheaters.

To the two Tarzan movies under consideration, in the first “Desert Mystery,” the villains are Nazi agents, and Jane has sent Tarzan and Boy on the mission across the Sahara to get medicinal herbs to fight malaria. In the second film, Tarzan runs into communist agents looking for diamonds to help the cold war goal of communist conquest of the world. The very popular ape man character was played by perennial athletic Tarzan Olympic swimmer Johnny Weismuller. The second by Lex Barker who wanted to balance the character with a perception of a more gentlemanly British nobleman, an important element in the books that was almost never referenced in the movies until recently.

Racism is perhaps a little more subtle in the movies, but the contrast between the white characters and the Arabic and black African roles is still there. The white Tarzan, Jane and Connie Bryce always come out superior. It is easy to excuse these cultural artifacts as being entertainment, from a different age, but as our American culture is still plagued by racial, cultural and social stereotypes of the “other ones,” it is important never to loose track of these distortions.

Even more so is it important because these movies certainly take seriously their appeal to a juvenile, young audience. Saying that these movies are seldom seen today provides an excuse not to worry about it, but the power of these images remain with us, almost unrecognized in everyday life but still very powerful.

It is wonderful however, given these caveats, to watch these two movies. The Olancha dunes stand in for the Sahara in “Desert Mystery” very effectively as an arid landscape. The tallest mountain in Africa is readily played by Mt. Whitney in “Savage Fury.” In fact, the story has been told and repeated in Lone Pine when the film played at the Mt. Whitney Theater in Lone Pine, it was intoned that they had to cross the highest mountain in Africa. When the camera panned up to the familiar peak, the entire audience stood up and cheered. That mountain has appeared in every cinematic continent and even on several alien planets. It is a well-traveled mountain, at least cinematically.

The plots of the two movies are good fun, and action packed. In “Tarzan’s Desert Mystery,” Tarzan rescues American magician Connie Bryce and then as they travel in search of the Waziri for the medicine, they battle both a giant spider and a giant man-(and woman) eating plant. In fact, the Nazi falls prey to the giant spider. So what has started as a more traditional Tarzan film becomes a science fiction-fantasy film which led the critics to remark it seemed more aimed at juvenile audiences this time. Jane is no where to be seen, but fans point out that Tarzan never casts a lustful eye at Connie, although boy does seem to be fishing for a mother-stand-in for he wants her to come back and live with them.

In “Tarzan’s Savage Fury” Rokov (played by Charles Korvin) and British traitor Edwards (Patrick Knowles) have convinced Tarzan and Jane to guide them for government purposes to the Waziri tribe (our old tribal friends) who control a treasure of uncut diamonds. They encounter a cannibalistic tribe, but escape except for Jane who remains captive. Ultimately Rokov leaves Edwards in a pit of hungry lions, and intends for Tarzan to join him. Instead in goes Rokov and Tarzan and Joey are able to get back to save Jane just before she is eaten by crocodiles at the foot of a stone idol.

The plots are fun, if fantastical, and keeping the cultural and racial distortions in mind, the films are still entertaining. Many of our adventure films of today owe much the prolific Tarzan films, comics and cartoons. A perfect way to spend a rainy Saturday should one someday appear.

“Did you say we saved ninety white people? Good. Hooray for us! Did you say we left ten thousand natives down there to be annihilated? No. No, you wouldn’t say that. They don’t count,” speaks Robert Conway played by Ronald Colman, hero of “Lost Horizon” near the beginning of the film. He adds, “Everybody wants something for nothing—if you can’t get it with smooth talk, you send the army in.” This scene of Conway’s profound disillusionment with political life and British Imperialism was in the film when released in 1937, but was cut in the 1942 rerelease.

“The last sentence [of Conway’s] reflected a bitter cynicism towards his country’s rulers indifferent attitudes toward people of color. Such truly idealistic talk must have been shocking when first coming from a movie screen in 1937,” writes Chale Nafus, Director of Programming, Austin Film Society. After much work in the 1970’s on restoration, the 25 minutes excised from the film in the preceding decades were restored. Stil the film “Lost Horizon’ is still classified as missing by many critics and film buffs because so many scenes were rewritten, or refilmed or removed by order of Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures.

Its basic financial failure at the time was an enormous disappointment to director Frank Capra. Instead of seeing it as his masterpiece as he had at first, his reevaluation of the film in the 1950’s caused Capra to comment, “I thought that the main part of the film should have been done better somehow. I got lost in the architecture, in Utopia, in the never-never land, and it was only toward the end of the picture that I got back on track with human beings,,,, This is common for one who wants to exploit a theme, and gives the theme too much a part in the story. I wavered several times. I shot several endings before I decided how to end it.”

With “The Adventures of Marco Polo” released in 1938, the failures are clearer. Gary Cooper was miscast. Instead of a laconic cowboy, the film needed a swashbuckler. There just isn’t enough action to support the audience’s interest. Second, the film blew entirely any historical accuracy. Polo did not travel alone, but instead with family members. He wasn’t the first European to visit China, just the first to write about it. He actually may never have made it to China at all. I found Sigrid Gurie’s portrayal of Princess Kukachin, unconvincing, based on strange stereotypes of Asian women at the time. She definitely reaches for “exotic” in her portrayal. Samuel Goldwyn hyped her as “The Siren of the Fjords” only to have it revealed during shooting by gossip columnist Louella Parsons that she was from Flatbush, Brooklyn. So it went with the first director John Cromwell being released after one week because of “creative differences,” and Archie Mayo being brought in after auteur William Wyler turned the job down.

Then there is Kublai Khan played by George Barbier as a kind of happy-go-lucky Dutch Uncle, Basil Rathbone as the quintessential villain Ahmed planning to over throw the emperor, and for me a cloying rather than comic relief caricature by Ernest Truex of Binguccio who when Polo enters Peking is being carried on his back. Really? For me the worst is Kaidu (Alan Hale), an opposing leader capturing Polo to pimp out to his wife Nazama (Binne Parnes) as a sex surrogate, so he could carry on a dalliance with Lana Turner, in her third credited role as Nazama’s maid. Seriously.

Obviously, both films are full of Asian women as stereotypes: seductive, strange, secretive and silly ( four “s” of feminine Orientalism).

“The Inyo Independent” of October 15, 1937 mentioned that “Marco Polo” was in the area filming. “A large number of United Artist actors were in Lone Pine from Saturday until Tuesday filming scenes of ‘Marco Polo’ starring Gary Cooper. Shots were made in the Alabama Hills and at the sand dunes in Olancha. After leaving Lone Pine the company went to Tioga Lodge where several camels were used in the picture.”

In the case of “Lost Horizon,” the main connection locally is with the Sierra Nevada seen through the hijacked airplane’s windows as it is going towards Shangri-La. I think I even saw Mt. Whitney relocated to Tibet. There is an affective scene of refueling on a dry lake that many mistake as the Owens Lake. It is actually Lake Lucerne.

Little can be said about “Marco Polo” except for the simplistic and inaccurate view of Chinese culture and history. Polo, if he did visit China, visited it 150 years before the Great Wall of China, in its brick manifestation as it is seen in this movie. I understand when occasionally timelines are altered in a film for dramatic license. But this film was made with almost aggressive and outrageous lack of concern for historical accuracy.

“Lost Horizon” is a more serious and thoughtful film. It has its problems but raising the idealism of a world without war, where all peoples can live in harmony, is worth sitting through the film. The restoration is generally beautiful, the film carefully made, and it is even fun to fly through the Sierra Nevada from your armchair. It is a film easy to find on DVD and there are many extras of interest that are well produced. If you have the inclination, go for it.

“I Cover the War,” made in 1937 by John Wayne presents a minor example of what Professor Said was attempting to describe as “Orientalism.” Often the term is used to indicate that much of our country’s history, and that of England has been distorted by misunderstanding of Muslim religion and culture. Orientalism has also analyzed a romantic tendency among writers and artists from the west. Just think of the images created by the words “harem,” “seraglio,” “belly dancer,” “veil,” “concubine” and “sheik.” Romantic and exotic images come to mind. Now you can add stereotypical terrorism and extremists. This movie even has those.

Bob Adams, (John Wayne) and Elmer “Slug” Davis (Don Barclay) have been assigned by the Atlas Newsreel to the British protectorate Samaria near the Iraq border to photograph the legendary and elusive Arab leader Muffadhi (Charles Brokaw.) There is a sub-ploy involving Bob’s brother, gunrunners masquerading as newsreel men, and the romantic interest. Wayne’s character ultimately meets and films Muffadhi who is planning a sneak attack on the British forces. This is a case of an “insurgency” and “terrorist” attacks. Will Wayne get the message to the British troops in time? Is their any political justification for Muffadhi’s behavior? Who will finally prevail in Samaria, the British or the residents? This is Hollywood in the 1930’s not Baghdad or Damascus in 2016.

This was the fourth picture Wayne would make for Universal and filming began on April 10th in Red Rock Canyon. After a day, and 15 camera set-ups, the production company went on to Lone Pine and then the studio for interiors. The company worked for eleven days, six days a week and the director, Arthur Lubin, was noted for achieving more than 50 camera set-ups a day. It was one of the very first assignments for Director of Photography Stanley Cortez who went on to lens more than 80 films in his career. Cortez had been born Stanislaus Krantz in New York City, changing both his name and his nationality before embarking on his Hollywood career. He was also the brother of actor Ricardo Cortez.

Don Barclay had a long career of fifty years. He appeared in over 100 feature films, but began as a Keystone Kop. He was in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man,My Darling Clementine, and The Long Gray Line, with his final performance in Mary Poppins. Major Sam Harris served as a consultant and actually had a part in the film. John Ford always liked working with Major Harris and whenever possible, he found a role for the patrician Australian actor.

Some of the action scenes are well-staged and help move the plot along. The rebels tent camp was located in the southern part of Lone Ranger Canyon, and was impressive by B movie standards. The three guards left to make sure Wayne and Barclay do not escape become fascinated with the camera. Their portrayal is beyond naïve, picturing these backward yokels so bewitched by modern film technology. Soon they are full-blown clowns and Wayne finally convinces them to run away in the opposite direction so he can film them. Reducing local inhabitants to clown characters is one way to demean them and make them unimportant, even appear stupid. Of course, the prisoners escape seamlessly without either trouble or violence, but just by outsmarting these Middle Eastern types.

Another scene has a babe in a skimpy faux Oriental outfit ride by, giving the male characters a chance to ogle her. She looks like she has come directly from a chorus line. Of course, no woman would dress in such revealing ways in the streets of any Islamic country. It would even be unusual to see a woman here in the United States dress in such a revealing way, but definitely standards are constantly “evolving” in the West. Hollywood loved and still admires when characters dress or comport themselves with such male fantasy styles unrelated to the culture of the character. It does sell tickets they assume.

I call these movies “Easterns” as opposed to westerns, because the Hollywood costumers. They are really not much more than making fun of locals who dress in strange ( read different) clothing. John Wayne by this time had already perfected his “John Wayne” style of acting. He is both competent at it and predictable. There is also comedy relief, especially with a monkey who gets to roam the plane as they fly from Damascus to Samaria. Of course, the main characters smoke on the small plane, and they don’t seemed to need to ever buckle-in.

Some reviews at the time picked up elements of the movie, a unique one for Wayne that is still difficult to locate today. But worth the effort. “[A]n ingeniously romantic fable, which never stoops to logic and is content to tell a good lie,” wrote “The New York Times” critic on August 2, 1937.”Film Daily” on April 29, 1937 stated, “Happy mixture of melodrama and comedy gives star new type of role.” Finally the “Motion Picture Herald” noted the use of the desert, desert warfare and the romance of it all: “Once again production takes to the desert and romance against the melodrama of desert warfare and intrigue for screen material…. Universal is confident that the forthcoming feature will maintain the amusement and commercial appeal.”

“The Charge of the Light Brigade,” directed by Michael Curtiz in 1936, is another romantic, Oriental adventure film, with all the normal prejudices, stereotypes, and exaggerations of the time about the Middle East that we have come to expect. What the story we remember today is about the charge. But it is not the narrative but the treatment of the horses that ultimately transformed attitudes about the use of animals in films.

The film was made to cash in on the success of “The Lives of the Bengal Lancer” and was the film that secured one its stars “super star” status. That would be Errol Flynn. Right from the end of the opening credits it declared that the filmmakers had not adhered to the facts of history. Of course, this was not unusual in Hollywood.

“This film has its basis in history. The historical basis, however, has been fictionalized for the purposes of this picture and the names of many of the characters, many characters themselves, the story, incidents and institutions, are fictitious.” Among other dramatic motivations, this also let the movie spend much time in India with the fictional Surat Khan in India, to play off the “Lives of the Bengal Lancers” films exotic locales. The charge itself actually took place during the Battle of Balaclava on October 25, 1854, in the Crimean War.

The plot involves two brothers Major Geoffrey Vickers (Errol Flynn) and his brother, Captain Perry Vickers (Patric Knowles) in the fictional town of Chukoti in India. Perry has stolen the love of Geoffrey’s finance Elsa (Olivia de Haviland) and the competition and resulting jealousy makes a powerful subtext in the film. Surat Khan spares the two lovers, but he sides with the Russians when the British Empire cuts his allowance.

In the real charge confusion send the light cavalry into battle, which leads to a slaughter. In the film Geoffrey is motivated by his hatred of Surat Khan who has staged a massacre of British men, women, and children. Often Oriental male royals are shown as deceitful in these films. G. Vickers sacrifices his own life to kill Surat Khan at the end of the charge thus playing the gentleman to free his brother and ex-fiancé to love.

It is the charge itself that remains as the most memorable part of the film. It is the death and maiming of so many horses that created such an outcry again Director Curtiz and the film, including even star Flynn that requires examination even today. The Inyo Independent of April 4, 1936 stated the following: “Seven sequences will be filmed near Lone Pine, showing scenes in India and Arabia. One of the special sequences to be made here is a wild horse drive, representing the members of the Bengal Lancer (sic) company going into Arabia to get horses to use in the Crimean War. Many Arabs and Hindus are among members of the cast, and with their fierce make-up and large robes they form a picturesque sight ion Main Street and in the lobby of the Dow hotel, where the music room has been turned into a make-up room.”

Petrine Day Mitchum writing in her book “Hollywood Hoofbeats: Trails Blazed Across the Silver Screen” states, “Not all early filmmakers had the knowledge or desire to protect horses from the hazards of the original Running W, however. In fact, director Michael Curtiz was oblivious to the dangers in staging the action in an earlier Errol Flynn movie, The Charge of the Light Brigade. The second unit director B. Reeves “Breezy” Eason was largely responsible for the infamous charge sequence, for which adequate safety precautions simply were not taken.”

While there was one trained “falling” horse, 125 horses were rigged with old-style Running Ws, a mechanism designed by famed Stunt man Yakima Canutt. It was a device that had wires attached to the horses front legs, and a cinch and guide wires. When the horse got to the end of the wire, the legs were pulled out from under him and he somersaulted in a spectacular fall. Canutt made and improved design, which he successfully demonstrated for the American Humane Society. He claimed to have made 300 horse falls without an injury.

Experienced stunt rider Jack Montgomery was sickened by the resulting carnage from the stage move charge, He estimate that twenty-five horses were either killed in action or destroyed after filming because of broken legs. “Scores more horses and riders received serious injuries. Errol Flynn was furious and went public with his outrage. It took a star of Flynn’s magnitude to focus producers’ attention on the treatment of performing animals, but it would still be several years before the public joined his cry and Running Ws were banned,” concludes Mitchum. Viewing the charge from the film, it is easy to see the mayhem and danger even though it makes for persuasive rout.

As Film Commissioner two experiences come to mind involving the Humane Society here. Both involved commercials, one two trained bears, and one involving four camels. Things were done to protect the animals, but they wanted to make sure I didn’t photograph anything that might be misconstrued. They were ever attentive when the animals were on set. Certainly constant, responsible vigil is necessary even in today‘s more professional industry.

While the film was popular and the critical reaction within the context of historical inaccuracies was successful, the film was not rereleased as was common with Warner Brothers films. This was because of the outcry about the treatment of horses. Curtis used to call for the horses on set by saying, “Bring on the empty horses.” By this he meant the riderless horses. So famous was this remark that actor David Niven used it as the title of his Hollywood autobiography.

Next time we will look at a John Wayne rarity, “I Cover the War.” Chances are you haven’t seen this cowboy film in “different” clothes.

Often the Cavalry rides to the rescue in local western actioners. In this case, all it takes is a few British military men to subdue rebellious natives on the northwest frontier of India in “The Lives of the Bengal Lancers.” The Cavalry are the Bengal Lancers played by Gary Cooper (Lt. Alan MacGregor), Franchot Tone (Lt. John Forsythe), and Richard Cromwell (Lt. Donald Stone). The bad guy Douglas Dumbrille (Mohammed Khan) is a leader who wants to free his people from British colonialism. While if he had been playing George Washington instead, Dumbrille would have been the hero.

Of course, Khan being Muslim does practice torture by sticking sticks under the nails of Cooper, Tone and Cromwell and then lighting them on fire. In these films the “other,” read the Muslim villains, practice torture while the good guys endure it. (Ever heard of waterboarding?) Well, actually Cromwell tells what Khan wants to know and avoids this mistreatment. Cromwell happens also to be the son of Colonel Stone, played with a very stiff upper lip by Sir Guy Standing. The British military life is examined in some detail, while the freedom fighters are there just to be a foil for the good guys. They are mere cardboard characters spouting lines like “We have ways of making men talk,” the most famous line from the film.

We do learn that all the British have to do is threaten to put a rebel in the skin of a pig to get them to spill the beans because we all know in Semitic religions (Islam and Judaism) pigs are forbidden dirty animals. That is about the level of understanding of the “other’s” religion in this otherwise exciting and very successful film of 1935. The reviewer for the “New York Times” when the picture opened wrote, “In its exciting and somewhat blood-chilling account of the gallant band of fighting men who guard the Northern frontier of England’s empire in India, the work is in the vigorously romantic tradition of Kipling and Talbot Mundy. While it usually manages to avoid Kipling’s fatally objectionable preoccupation with the white man’s burden, it is so sympathetic in its discussion of England’s colonial management that it ought to prove a great blessing to Downing Street.”

The picture is based on Francis Yeats-Brown’s true-life account of his life with the Bengal Lancers, but the film calls the book a novel. It doesn’t matter much because there are few similarities between the two. Unfortunately the author became sympathetic Fascist cause at the time, and Adolph Hitler told the British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax in 1937 that it was one of his favorite films. According the Fuhrer, it showed a “handful of Britons holding a continent in thrall. That is how a superior race must behave and the film was compulsory viewing for the S.S.” Talk about a marketing disaster, but in its day the film was widely praised and a great financial success, even earning eight Academy Award nominations.

The history of the making of the film is interesting. Four years before they came to Lone Pine, Paramount commenced pre-production when they sent Ernest Schoedsack to India for exteriors and atmosphere. Variety reports, “Some of Schoedsack’s stuff is still in, but in those four years original plans were kicked around until lost.” The Alabama Hills brought its own romantic view of the area around the Khyber Pass as it would for so many other films we will be discussing. The delay by the way was caused by a shortage of film stock, not the usual studio politics and decision-making. In the July 13, 1934 Inyo Independent announced Sid Street had been here and if things went well, the rest of the cast and crew would be here “next” week. It also stated that Russell Spainhower, G.W. Dow, and R.H. Henderson assisted him. It wasn’t until September of the same year that the company of 150 arrived according to the same paper.

The Dow was their headquarters, but because of the size of the company, thirty people were staying at the Winnedumah in Independence. The paper also announced that between thirty and forty extras would be employed locally. By the next week the number of employees working on the film had risen to 274 and since they were somewhat behind schedule they would film for another week. “Lone Pine gives the appearance of a portion of Hollywood with screen stars and extras promenading the streets, Paramount trucks and equipment busy keeping the company at work, riding horses being driven from location to location, and large buses carrying members of the company and extras to the Alabama Hills site and return.”

The column of the paper “Off the Beaten Path” reported lots of gossipy news bits. “Lone Pine has gone Hollywood with a vengeance…. Actors stroll up and down the street, and its an old thrill now for the young ‘uns to rub elbows with Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone, Guy Standing and Monte Blue.” The writer continued, “Members of the company are thoroly [sic] enjoying themselves. They have made themselves at home and appreciate the western hospitality typical of Lone Pine.” The paper said that Cooper and Blue had been here before and appreciated it every time they came on location. Franchot Tone is a “millionaire in his own right, and his salary from the motion pictures is just a little play money. He admits motion picture work gives one the chance to run the gamut of all manner of conditions.

Finally the writer explains the use of matte paintings in the making of films. When the director Hathaway wants a beautiful Indian castle sitting atop of one of the 14,000 foot peaks, “he merely has the camera adjusted, places a black silhouette of the castle outline in front of the camera, and then the film is taken to Hollywood, where it is doctored and painted. You’ll never know the difference. Hollywood had its tricks, and uses them.”

The film is not easy to find only now released to DVD in a Gary Cooper box set

“Orientalism” is an attitude, an ignorant evaluation, a culture bound value judgment and at best, a misunderstanding of eastern cultures by western cultures, particularly Europe and the United States. It is seen in art, film, economic and political policy and in the intention of one culture to dominate another. It undoubtedly has affected European and American foreign policy, often rendering it ineffective and even counter productive. Most recently, we have seen it reflected in many calling for barring all refugees from entering these countries from Syria and Iraq, judging, probably in fear, that all Asian and Middle Eastern Arabs are part of Isis and intend harm to the host countries.

Orientalism was first identified and popularized as an academic orientation, one ripe for study by Professor Edward Said in the 1970s with a book of the same name. Since then there have been both enthusiastic and thoughtful defenders and also denigrators. The discussion continues. The assumption here is that there is such a things as distortion of “Oriental” cultures in our art, writing, thought and public discourse as well as in popular thought. The radical and violent few in the extreme wing of the Islamic religion and their terrorist acts have not helped rational discussion or gaining a more accurate view of the East, and seeing clearing distortions that have resulted in portraying the people and culture.

We will examine a set of films made locally, numbering more than thirty-five since 1935, that have settings in Asia and the Middle East and then are likely to have reflected prevalent perspectives that we now list under “Orientalism.” This is not where the most serious and dangerous distortions have taken place. These movies were made first to entertain, then to educate. What makes them harmful is that these films seem innocent or trivial and yet over the years the attitudes they embody have been able to inculcate themselves because they were for entertainment first. By examining them in depth and building context with events and statements now, and expressions of Orientalism in other more “serious” art forms as well as public debate, we will see revealed just how nefarious some of these attitudes and orientations are in our free society today.

Many of the films I consider “Orientalist” involve the British Empire. Usually the Raj is being forced to defend its colonies in India, Central Asia, Arabia, North Africa and China. The British military sub-genre is seen in “Lives of the Bengal Lancer;” “Gunga Din;” “Desert Legion;” “King of the Khyber Rifles;” “Storm Over Bengal;” “I Cover the War” and even “Tarzan’s Desert Mystery,” to name just a few.

Then there are the films about raiding hordes of desert tribes: Bedouin, and many unnamed representatives in flowing robes. Some of these films include: “The Desert Hawk;” “Flame of Araby;” “ Outlaws of the Desert;” and “Outlaws of the Orient.” Movies sometime are set in the United States but have characters from the Orient. Two films made in Death Valley include the Chinese detective Charlie Chan, rife with stereotypical distortions, even to the point the actor who played the detective was not Chinese but Japanese; the four films set in China or Tibet: "Adventures of Marco Polo;” ”Oil for the Lamps of China;” “The Shadow;” and even parts of a modern film “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.” This last film we will consider when we take up evil Arab stereotypes in our modern action films.

We begin today with the film “Oil for the Lamps of China (1935).” It may be somewhat ironic then that this film takes big business to task much more than Chinese culture and national conditions. In this case, the big business is oil extraction and developing a new market which happens to be China. An oil executive (Henry O’Neill) of the Atlantis Oil Company sends men to China promising that although the country is primitive, backwards and full of peasants, the company will take good care of its employees. Our hero Stephen Chase, played competently by Pat O’Brien gets a contract to Manchuria, but asks for leave from his immediate boss (Arthur Byron) to marry. His boss is dead set against it, saying that China is not place for women (like half the population are women already.)

Chase gets permission, but when he gets to Yokohama there is only a letter from his fiancé saying she’s not coming because she can’t imagine living in a place like China. While there he meets Hester, the daughter of a professor of Chinese studies. Unfortunately, her father has died and she finds herself alone. When Chase proposes marriage to avoid “loosing face” about his lost fiancé, she accepts. Because these two lived first in a novel and now in a film, this kind of western arranged marriage ends happily with them falling in love, at least for a while.

Hester become pregnant. Stephen is assigned an even more remote and rural area. He does not want her to come, but she insists. The travel and living conditions are so harsh and difficult that Hester looses the child. The marriage is very stressed because Stephen has chosen his job (fighting a rampaging fire) over taking care of his wife and getting the doctor. We will continue the story of Stephen and Hester Chase and this movie’s oriental attitudes next time.

Most people associate the films shot in and around Lone Pine with Westerns. This is for a good reason because a majority of the films made in that area are Westerns. But many other genres of films have also worked in this area: film noir, crime, adventure, science fiction, romance and even comedy.

One kind of film is a subgenre of adventure. I like to call them “Easterns,” for in many ways they resemble Westerns but the people wear foreign, “strange” clothes. This subgenre of films takes place in the Middle East, Asia, China and the Far East. Examples include “Oil For the Lamps of China,” “Lives of the Bengal Lancer,” “Charge of the Light Brigade,” and even a Hoppy film called “Outlaws of the Desert” (not to be confused with “Outlaws of the Orient” a hard to find film starring Jack Holt.)

One way to examine these films as a group and singularly is through the critical lens of “Orientalism,” and that is what I plan to do as we visit the many “eastern” locations of these films.

Writer and scholar Edmund Said coined the word “orientalism” and defined it in his book of the same name published in 1978.

According to Said, the West has created a dichotomy, between the reality of the East and the romantic notion of the “Orient.” The Middle East and Asia are viewed with prejudice and racism. They are seen as backward and unaware of their own history and culture. They are often seen as sexually seductive and dangerous. To fill the void, the West has created a culture, history, and future promise for them. On this framework rests not only the study of the orient, but also the political imperialism of Europe in the East.

Said argues that orientalism can be found in current Western depictions of “Arab” cultures. The depictions of “the Arab” as irrational, menacing, untrustworthy, anti-Western, dishonest and perhaps most importantly---prototypical, are ideas in which Orientalist scholarship has evolved.

Many of the Lone Pine movies can be seen as suffering from a misperception of the peoples and cultures of one or more Asian societies. Thus an Orientalist analysis is warranted of the films to see how they have affected a generation of viewers’ attitudes and understandings of Arabic, Islamic and people of the Far East. Our “oriental” epics or “easterns” are, to varying degrees, enjoyable today. Our modern understandings have hopefully changed and now the movies can be viewed as artifacts of our beliefs as a country in another time. The realization of this fact can be instructive in its own right.

Many themes come into view as we look at these films, the issues they address and unintentionally touch upon. Stereotypical portrayals move from violent, ignorant, sneaky and seductive to misunderstood ultra religious, ethical challenges with misperceived personal and cultural motivations. The whole subject of Orientalism is complex and controversial and as we examine the several dozen films I am classifying as Oriental adventure, we will explore these topics in more depth.

There are many characteristics of misrepresentation and ignorant portrayals in Hollywood films. We can begin there. The first, which is both entertaining yet tell tale is how women, and genders in general are presented. Women are sensual. They are often shown in well-choreographed sensual dance number, featuring scant costumes. Even more is how “Oriental” women are compared and contrasted with western women, often British or American. The tribal women warriors in their scanty tops are identified as a Quashqai, a tribal people found in Iran and neighboring lands. Being Islamic the real dress of the women is veiled and very conservative, yet in the movie “The Adventures of Hajji Baba” they are costumed in halter tops and sexy bloomers, riding on horses swinging deadly swords.

The beautiful actress Maureen O’Hara, who recently passed away, made two intensely Orientalist films in the Lone Pine area: “Flame of Araby” and “Bagdad.” Her costumes are at times revealing and certainly meant to be seductive. With men in Oriental films, they can be pictured as sneaky as they are in “King of the Khyber Rifles,” or even somewhat feminized. Often the people are presented as living in poverty and squalor. I am not saying this is not poverty and horrible living conditions in areas of the Middle East, India or China. I am saying that there is an assumption that is all you will find automatically there. Hollywood was always attracted to the idea and presentation of harems as were the romantic painters of almost two hundred years ago. Researchers and the diaries and journals of western females in actuality report a very different condition in historic harems then the ones we see in American movies inspired as they are by male fantasy and the domination of women.

These movies we are will be focusing on are both fantasy and action/ adventure films. Consequently we do not see a portrayal of “Oriental” home life or even normal life in the Bazaar. We do see examples in the films of native people pushing back against western colonialism. Even in a John Wayne film “I Cover the War,” we encounter a group of rebels who are resisting the British Empire in a fictional country like Arabia. The attitudes represented in the film show the Arabs as rebellious for no valid reason with little understanding of what their true cause really is. They are bad for opposing the British Empire. Period.

Orientalism is a complex study but it will bring a better understanding to our subgenre of films that considered and accepted “a desert is a desert is a desert.” Deserts may look a lot alike, a convenience for location scouts, but in fact the deserts and the people of the deserts vary greatly. Next time, we set out, headed east.